Saturday, 27 October 2007

Leadership has nothing to do with titles

J. Frank Brown, the Dean of INSEAD has just published a marvelous book called the The global business leader. In this book he says he has met a lot of CEOs in his two-and-a-half decades in business and many of them are little more than LINOs – Leaders In Name Only.

Brown believes there are seven hallmarks of a great leader. “I think the most important one is how you communicate and how you listen because if you’re going to be a successful leader you’ve got to be a really aggressive learner,” he said.

In his book, The Global Business Leader: Practical Advice for Success in a Transcultural Marketplace, Brown lists the hallmarks of leadership: openness, integrity, humility, a view of the present and the future, an optimistic outlook, the proper use of authority, and an understanding of personal and organisational objectives.